Build a Personal Health Journal (part 2)Get a hold of your personal medical records In our last Every Patient’s Advocate column, we reviewed the good practice of keeping your personal health records. Today we’ll look at the method for obtaining medical records from your doctors to include in your files.Certain laws regulate how records can be shared, and with whom. The laws were written to keep patients’ records from getting into the wrong hands. Based on those laws, individual doctors establish their own procedures to help you to obtain your records from them. Procedures vary, depending on the specialty, the time period in question, and what the record is. Unless the records you need are recent, it may take up to 10 days to get them back, and you may be charged up to 75 cents per page for copies. Among the doctors I’ve interviewed, most will not charge when they are referring a patient for a consultation, or if the patient is seeking a second opinion. Many will charge for records that are no longer current and must be pulled from storage. You must be the patient, or the parent or guardian of the patient for whom you seek records**. Most practices will have a form you must fill out with basics such as your name, the dates in question, and the records you are looking for. By law, doctors are required to share any records they have developed themselves, or any test results for which they have copies. They are also required to share any information provided by another doctor if that information was used for the diagnosis and/or treatment being discussed with their patient.* If you would like a copy of diagnostic lab medical test such as a blood test, CT scan, x-ray, mammogram or others, the laws say you can only obtain those records from the doctor who ordered them, or your primary physician. The testing center is not allowed to provide them directly to you. Even more laws and guidelines limit how long a doctor is required to store your records. With the advent of electronic record keeping, those time frames may expand since electronic records take up very little space and are easily searchable. However, don’t be surprised if you request records from seven or more years ago, and they are no longer available. In our next Every Patient’s Advocate column, we’ll have suggestions for what to do if you need records from a doctor who is no longer in practice, and we’ll review some methods for storing your records. ................. Additional Information .................... *Thanks to Cindy Nappa of SUNY Upstate Medical University (Syracuse, NY) and Donnie Richman of Fager and Amsler Attorneys for providing additional information. **There are others who may also access your medical records including insurance companies (who will make decisions about insurance coverage), the government (used to make decisions about Medicare reimbursements, Social Security disability and others), certain judicial proceedings and others. (This is part 2 of 3. Link here to part 1 or part 3.) © 2006 Trisha Torrey Return to Main List of Columns
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